Science Fair Winner!

I have bad memories of science fair projects from my childhood. I was always trying to finish them last minute and the only time my project was actually good was when my Mom pretty much did most of it!

Science fair projects at our elementary school are optional. I'm pretty sure Matt never asked me to do one but Marlie has been asking for several years. I wanted her to be old enough to actually do it herself so I gave her the green light this year.

Her project was on Home Remedies for Molluscum Contagiosum. Was this my idea, yes. But Marlie, with a lot of help from Matt, did the project herself. We have had several issues with this virus so it sort of became a family project and it was actually pretty fun. Here's the background...Matt noticed these little white spots on his leg so I took him to the dermatologist and she said it was molluscum. It's a very contagious virus that most children get and can last 6 months to several years. There are no aches or pains, just these little white bumps. So she said she would remove the bumps by applying beetle juice but they blistered horribly! So bad they got infected and we ended up in the pediatrician's office. Poor kid missed several weeks of football, couldn't swim in the heat of the summer and almost missed going to camp!

The pediatrician said we should have just left the bumps alone. After doing some research there are some home remedies that can help speed up the process of the bumps going away. So that's what Marlie did. Matt had 3 new bumps on his leg after the initial fiasco so she tried multiple products on the bumps.

After a months worth of testing she concluded that tea tree oil works the best but you have to be careful to just apply it directly to the bump otherwise it irritates the skin around it. The other option that seemed to work was diluted apple cider vinegar (if you can stand the smell!). Coconut oil didn't work at all! 

Marlie did a fantastic job of planning out her board, writing up all the sections, choosing a color scheme, etc. I just had to help her glue it all on the board (because yes we were doing this late the day before it was due!). She ended up placing 2nd for all of 5th grade and 3rd overall for Fall Creek Elementary. She qualified for the District Science Fair and was able to present her project after waiting for 4 hours! She had lots of fun throughout the process and Matt was the best test subject. 

Spring Break 2018

We found out about a week before our trip that Dad was going to have to come home early from our Spring Break ski trip for work! We all were super bummed, especially Doug who looks so forward to this trip every year. So we did our best to move some things around and made it work!

Doug and Marlie left a little early to start skiing! They rode the funicular at the St. Regis and then Marlie was beyond excited that they found this beautiful owl on Main Street. She even got to hold it! Apparently this owl is a celebrity as it's been in several movies including Harry Potter!

I made Doug promise that he'd go slow with Marlie on their first day! This is the video I got of her going down her first run. It was a short blue but she turned well just like they teach her in ski school!

Matt and I met them for lunch and although I was tired from a really late flight, Matt was ready to ski! 

The kids still had plenty of energy when they got home so they made a little fort in our backyard!

We had a really nice dinner that night at Tupelo's. They had the most amazing buttermilk biscuits, Doug had one of the best drinks I've ever had and we finished it off with s'mores biscuit bread pudding!

Marlie went to ski school the next day and Dad, Matt and I skied together.  Matt's favorite part about skiing is trying to jump. It works great for me because all of the jumps he likes are off the green runs!

We all skied together on Sunday before Doug flew home. It's so fun now that the kids are such good skiers and fairly self sufficient. Matt has the funniest neck gator and so many people laugh along the way!

 After 2 full days of skiing I felt like my body couldn't move! These people wear me out! 

Matt went to ski school the next day and Marlie and I decided to try ice skating. It took her awhile but eventually she got it and loved it! We must have gone around that rink 100 times! The weather was absolutely gorgeous! We had lunch at the base of the Park City mountain and shared the best hamburger!

We picked Matt up and had dinner at Freshie's Lobster and had the best lobster rolls. Matt isn't the biggest eater but he had his down in a few seconds and was going back for another one! Can't wait to come back to this place with Dad!

The kids decided they wanted to go snow tubing the next day so we got to sleep in and off we went! We had SO much fun! It was a little crowded but we managed to make it down several times. The weather was gorgeous and after the first run we started shedding jackets. We saw a family try this so we decided to try it on our last run and it was awesome. We wished Dad were with us because we would have gone even faster!

Then it was off to lunch and to see a movie. Marlie really liked A Wrinkle in Time, Matt and I thought it was ok. We were supposed to ski the next day but the weather was not great. With temperatures in the 40s, we woke up to rain. Weather called for thunderstorms all day and I didn't want to risk being on the mountain in the rain. So we ended up at the bowling alley! The last game I insisted we try without bumpers and guess who was the worst...ME! LOL!

We had a really great lunch at Vessel Kitchen and then made a quick stop at the outlet mall before heading back to the condo. We had a  nice relaxing evening and sadly had to head home. We look forward to coming back! Hope everyone had a great spring break!